Race
Coronavirus and the Politics of Disposability
COVID-19 is having a disproportionate effect among vulnerable populations. As in all U.S. disasters, there will be a tale to tell of who mattered and who was sacrificed.
American Racism in the Time of Plagues
The United States has a long history of blaming Asian immigrants for outbreaks of disease. Every time, democracy and public health suffer.
Hyman Bloom’s Messy Bodies
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ retrospective of Hyman Bloom offers visitors the chance to engage with work that exemplifies how art can foster justice-minded, ethical looking.
The War Against the Poor Knows No Borders
The Trump administration’s sanctions against Iran and cuts to SNAP benefits are two sides of the same war that the rich are waging against the global poor.
The Radical Lives of Abolitionists
Many took part in other radical movements—including Free Love, which promoted women’s independence and an end to traditional marriage.
Black Abolitionists Believed in Taking Up Arms
Long before the Civil War, black abolitionists shared the consensus that violence would be necessary to end slavery.
AI’s Human Problem
Two new books about machine creativity mostly reveal how little appreciation we still have for the full range of human creativity.
Ally: From Noun to Verb
Robin D. G. Kelley talks with musician Vijay Iyer about systems of oppression, the responsibility of artists, and how jazz sells proximity to blackness to white people.
The Pervasive Power of the Settler Mindset
More than simple racism or discrimination, it is built upon violent elimination.
A Jury of One’s Peers
Prosecutors have too long used a system of “strikes” to engineer nearly all-white juries.
Against Black Homeownership
The real estate market is so structured by race that Black families will never come out ahead.
Rap on Trial
Prosecutors use defendants’ rap lyrics to win cases despite the flimsiest evidence. Behind this rests a unique paranoia around hip hop and a long history of criminalizing black art.
Fascism in Translation
Far-right leaders often call for one nation united under one language. They have also always been good at using translation to spread their politics.
The Greensboro Massacre at 40
On November 3, 1979, members of the KKK and American Nazi Party murdered five labor organizers in broad daylight. Forty years later, massacre survivor Rosalyn Pelles talks about that day, and why organized workers are such a threat to the powerful.
The Revolutionary and the Historian
A historian and rapper reflect on their shared activism and the place they see for allies in the long struggle for racial justice.
The Making of the American Gulag
During the Cold War, the “police apparatus” was held up as a prime example of Soviet repression. Yet the United States ended up with its own carceral state.
Elitism Can’t Be Democratized
Admissions scandals are a symptom that what passes for egalitarian struggle now amounts to desperate individual attempts to ascend a steepening social hierarchy.
The Origins of Sexual Healing
How the song emerged from Gaye’s struggles with faith, drug addiction, and childhood abuse.
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